Matty Smith

I love to experiment with split level water landscapes, you never really know what you’re going get as seabeds change with tides and aquatic plants and animals come and go. The dynamics of the changing water line across my lens port produces beautiful and unpredictable curves too, which is also an added element of mystery.

It’s taken me several early mornings to develope this lighting technique. Using high powered underwater strobes place beneath the blue bottles I hit them with a burst of light, the crystal clear deep water reflects no light but the bluebottles pop with that amazing electric cyan blue colour! And framed againt the the silhouette backdrop of the bay and the orange glow from the sun I think they look quite amazing wouldn’t you agree? Well done mother nature you did it again!

I had been shooting over/underwater images of these waratah anemones at Port Kembla, NSW for several weeks but couldn’t quite coincide the required low tide with a complimentary sunrise. However, on this particular day there were a lot of silver gulls around and the hazy morning mist created a beautiful sun halo. I quickly fired a few frames before the light changed and as I did I really lucked in as one of the gulls flew right through the suns orb! ….. The decisive moment had arrived!I shot the image with my camera housed in a waterproof case and an 8″ acrylic lens dome. The anemones were lit with underwater strobe guns.What I really love about over/under photographs is that it gives the underwater element a sense of place. For the viewer it marries the underwater environment with our own familiar world. It links the unknown with the known.